'Narrative of a journey to the site of Babylon in 1811, now first published: memoir on the ruins; with engravings from the original sketches by the author: remarks on the topography of ancient Babylon, by Major Rennell; in reference to the memoir: second memoir on the ruins; in reference to Major Rennell's remarks: with narrative of a journey to Persepolis: now first printed, with hitherto unpublished cuneiform inscriptions copied at Persepolis: by the late Claudius James Rich, Esq., formerly the Resident of the Hon. East India Company at Bagdad. Edited by his widow.' [‎189] (277/474)

A PP.]
BABYLONIAN ANTIQUES.
wards; and, what is very remarkable, when laid in
bitumen, that cement is never found adhering to the
face, though it always sticks to the back of the
brick. The people employed in the ruins of Baby
lon to procure bricks told me that this 'was effected
by strewing some powdered lime over the bitumen
when the brick was laid on its face in it: but
I know not what authority they have for this opi
nion. In my first Memoir I doubted that reeds had
ever been employed where bitumen was used ;
have since seen some bricks with bitumen adhering
to them, on which the impression of a reed mat was
so strongly marked as to induce me to change my
opinion.
The number and variety of the stamps bear no
proportion to the number of the bricks. I have
as yet only seen four kinds, with some varieties of
each.
No. 6 is an inscription of seven lines, of which
Dr. Grotefend has only seen an imperfect copy.
Septilinear inscription is the most common of all ;
out of nineteen bricks taken at random, fourteen
were of this sort. There are several varieties of
this kind, differing from each other only in a cha
racter or two.
No. 7 is an inscription of six lines. The speci
men here given is remarkable by deviating in many
places from the other kind of brick inscriptions,
especially in the omission of almost the whole series
of characters which form the fifth line in the septi-
linear inscriptions.